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Human remains found last month Scurry County have been identified as belonging to a 13-year-old West Texas girl who disappeared in late 2010, authorities said Friday.

The remains of Hailey Dunn were found on March 16 near Lake J.B. Thomas. Her mother had reported Hailey missing to the Colorado City police department on Dec. 28, 2010.

The missing girl’s remains were identified through DNA testing conducted by the University of North Texas Center for Human Identification

An investigation into the circumstances surrounding her disappearance and death is ongoing, officials said.

Anyone with information about the case is asked to call the Scurry County Sheriff’s Office at 325-573-3551, the FBI Dallas Division at 972-559-5000, Crime Stoppers at 1-800-252-8477 or submit a tip online at tips.fbi.gov.

Update on April 3 at 12:18 p.m.: Former Dallas police officer Stephanie Barney appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge David L. Horan late last week to plead guilty to one count of filing a false income tax return. She faces a maximum statutory penalty of three years in federal prison and a $100,000 fine. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office today, Barney has also agreed to pay restitution of up to $42,941 to the Internal Revenue Service.

The U.S. Attorney’s release reiterates our reporting from February. From the feds:

Barney admitted that in June 2007, while she was employed as an officer with the Dallas Police Department, she filed an amended joint tax return, for tax year 2006. She admitted that on that return, she claimed false medical deductions and falsely claimed a business loss that caused her to understate the amount of her taxable income.

Barney also admitted, according to the factual resume, that she filed similar false tax returns for tax years 2004 and 2005. When Barney was audited by the IRS in 2007, she provided the investigating revenue agent falsified checks and receipts in an attempt to fraudulently substantiate the questionable itemized deductions she had claimed on her 2006 tax return.

According to the factual resume, the tax loss is $42,941.58, representing the total losses for tax years 2004, 2005 and 2006.

A sentencing date has not been set.

Original item posted February 27 at 10:51 a.m.: A former Dallas police officer has confessed to filing a fraudulent tax return, according to federal court documents.

Stephanie Barney, who resigned from the force last year, agreed to plead guilty to one count of willful presentation of a false or fraudulent tax return.

Her attorney, Albert Ross, declined to comment.

According to the plea agreement, Barney has confessed that she filed an amended 2006 tax return in which she took fraudulent medical deductions and falsely claimed a business loss.

When Barney was audited in 2007, “Barney provided the investigating revenue agent with falsified checks and receipts in an attempt to fraudulently substantiate the questionable itemized deductions Barney claimed on her tax return for the year 2006,” the documents state.

She also confessed to having falsified her tax returns for the years 2004 and 2005, the documents state.

The tax fraud totaled almost $43,000, which she has agreed to repay, the documents state.

A court date for Barney to formally enter her guilty plea before a federal judge has not yet been scheduled.

Barney could face up to three years in prison and a fine of up to $100,000, as well one year of supervised release, according to the plea documents.

Our story detailed how the new policy, put in place by Chief David Brown, had caused 75 percent reduction in such reports last year. It also explained how the net effect is that about a third of Dallas’ highly touted 11 percent drop in crime last year came about because police no longer respond to the shoplifting calls and retailers are reluctant to hassle with reporting the petty thefts.

On the magazine’s crime blog, Justin Peters notes that police departments often use two strategies to cut crime: flood high-crime areas with cops or make it harder to report crimes.

“The Dallas, Texas police department chose the latter strategy last year when it announced that police officers would no longer respond in person to shoplifting incidents involving items worth $50 or less,” Peters writes.

He goes on to say that he understands that police agencies have to “make tough choices” with how they use their resources, but adds that DPD should not be allowed to “claim the resulting statistics as some huge crime-fighting victory.”

“A huge drop in crime doesn’t necessarily mean that the police are being any more effective; it could just mean crimes are being downgraded or ignored,” he writes. “As this Dallas situation shows, ‘less crime getting reported’ is not the same thing as ‘less crime.’

A reputed Texas Syndicate gang member with ties to North Texas has been added to the Texas 10 Most Wanted Fugitive List.

A $7,500 reward is being offered for information that leads to the arrest of Gus Matthew Soto, 28. He is wanted for a charge of aggravated robbery and violating parole.

Soto is accused of taking part in an armed robbery where authorities say he and an accomplice assaulted and robbed the victim at gunpoint in Spring.

Authorities say Soto has relatives and friends Dallas, Spring and The Woodlands. He has previously worked as a landscaper.

His criminal history includes convictions for robbery, assault, assault of a public servant, drug possession, violation of protective order and criminal trespass.

He is about 5 foot 6 inches tall and weighs about 225 pounds.

His numerous tattoos include “Soto” across his upper back, “Perdoname Madre Por Mi Vida Loca” across his chest, two teardrops on his left cheek, “Torez” on the inside of his left forearm; a demon face with horns on his right arm, “Alexis” on the right side of his neck and the Houston Texans team logo on the right side of his neck.

Those with information about his whereabouts can call the Crime Stoppers hotline at 1-800-252-TIPS (8477); text the letters DPS followed by your tip to 274637 (CRIMES) from your cell phone, submit a web tip through the DPS website by selecting the fugitive you have information about, and then clicking on the link under their picture.

Tipsters can also submit a Facebook tip at http://www.facebook.com/texas10mostwanted by clicking the “SUBMIT A TIP” link (under the “About” section).

All tips can be made anonymously.

His wanted bulletin can be viewed at http://www.dps.texas.gov/Texas10MostWanted/fugitiveDetails.aspx?id=191.

Parker County authorities are asking for help in identifying the burglars who took more than $22,000 in property from a building along Interstate 20.

The burglary was discovered Monday evening when workers noticed that a window had been removed from the building in the 8400 block of Interstate 20. A rear door had also been left open, and the door frame had been damaged from someone forcing the door open, authorities said.

The thieves took a refrigerator, furniture, a statue, an oriental rug and 18 paintings, police said.

Anyone with information about the burglary can contact the Parker County Crime Stoppers Hotline at 817-599-5555.

Crime Stoppers will pay up to a $1,000 reward for information that leads to an arrest or conviction.

The FBI is looking into whether the January slaying of a Kaufman County prosecutor could have any connections to this week’s slaying of Colorado’s prison chief, authorities said Friday.

Kaufman County Assistant District Attorney Mark Hasse, 57, was gunned down near the Kaufman County Courthouse on Jan. 31. Tom Clements, head of Colorado’s prisons, was fatally shot when he answered his door Tuesday night.

“The Dallas and Denver offices of the Federal Bureau of Investigation are comparing the homicides of Mark Hasse and Tom Clements to determine if there is any evidence linking the two crimes,”Kaufman Police Chief Chris Aulbaugh said in a written statement released to the media. “This is part of routine investigative work when two crimes occur under somewhat similar circumstances. If any link is found, or a possible link is disproven, that information will be released at the appropriate time.

Authorities have said that the Colorado parolee suspected in the slaying of Clements shot a Montague County deputy on Thursday before leading Texas law officers on a lengthy chase into Wise County. The chase ended when he crashed his car into a semi. The suspect, identified as Evan Spencer Ebel, was shot in the head during a shootout.

He died Thursday night in a Fort Worth hospital.

The Denver Post reported has reported that Ebel is a member of the 211 prison gang, a white supremacist gang.

The Dallas Morning News reported last month that federal authorities were looking into whether the violent white supremacist gang, Aryan Brotherhood of Texas, may have been involved in the Hasse’s death. Authorities were also investigating other threats to law enforcement made by the gang’s members.

Authorities have no solid information to suggest the prison gang’s involvement in Hasse’s killing, but there’s a belief that his reputation as a hard-nosed prosecutor could have played a role in his death.

A former Dallas police employee has been indicted for allegedly stealing nearly $1,500 over four-month period.

Jacquelin Holstein, 28, was indicted on one count of theft by a public servant, a state jail felony punishable by up to two years in jail. Holstein resigned last week.

According to police records, Holstein was an office assistant in the department’s quartermaster section and her job involved handling money.

In October, a supervisor discovered discrepancies with a deposit made by Holstein. The supervisor conducted an audit and determined that about $1,488 was missing from May 2012 to September 2012.

When questioned by a police investigator, Holstein confessed that she took the “monies from the cash boxes and used the monies for her own personal use and to prevent the Quartermaster snack funds from having a shortage,” police records state. “Suspect knew she did not have permission or the right to take funds for her personal use or to cover any other missing funds.”

Update at 5:09 p.m.: In a 911 recording from a September call to Lancaster police, accused killed Eddie Ray Routh’s mother told the operator that her son suffered from PTSD.

“He’s threatening to kill himself and others,” Jodi Routh said. “He probably needs to go to the VA to the emergency room and they need to admit him to the mental ward.

As officer responded to the scene, a 911 operator called to check back in. Jodi Routh told the operator that he had taken on foot with his dog and wasn’t wearing shoes or a shirt.

She said one of her son’s Marine Corps buddies had taken the weapons that were in the house with them for safekeeping.

“They’re all hunting weapons, you know shotguns and rifles,” Jodi Routh said. “He was threatening to you know shoot himself and I just can’t have that. …We were trying to get them out of here without him seeing us take them out.”

Update at 4:10 p.m: The brother-in-law of accused killer Eddie Ray Routh described a paranoid Routh who arrived to his home and said he’d murdered two people because “he couldn’t trust anyone anymore and everyone was out to get him,” according to a search warrant affidavit.

According to the affidavit, Routh “admitted to killing Chris Kyle and Chad Littlefield at Rough Creek Lodge Shooting Range” and “admitted to stealing Kyle’s pickup truck” in a statement to police.

Routh, who is accused of killing Navy SEAL sniper Chris Kyle and Kyle’s neighbor, Chad Littlefield, called his sister and brother-in-law from an apartment in Alvarado to see if they were home before driving to their house in Midlothian in Kyle’s black pickup truck, the affidavit says.

When Routh arrived around 5:45 p.m., his brother-in-law Gaines Blevins said he was “acting and talking strangely.” Routh told his brother-in-law and sister, Laura, that he and two other people “were out shooting target practice and he couldn’t trust them so he killed them before they could kill him.” Routh told them “he traded his soul for a new truck.”

Laura Blevins told police her brother seemed “out of his mind saying people were sucking his soul and that he could smell the pigs. He said he was going to get their souls before they took his.”

When she asked Routh who he had killed, he said Chris Kyle and Kyle’s friend. “I asked him if he was kidding and he said no repeatedly,” the affidavit says. She urged him to turn himself in.

Lancaster police obtained a warrant to search Routh’s single-story home for shell cases, bullets, blood evidence, video surveillance equipment, firearms and other evidence that might be linked to the double murder, the affidavit says.

Original item posted at 1:34 p.m.: In a frantic 911 recording, the sister of accused killer Eddie Ray Routh told a 911 operator that her brother had just left her home after confessing to murder.

“I’m terrified for my life because I don’t know if he’s going to come down here,” Laura Blevins said, according to a recording released by Midlothian police on Tuesday.

Routh, a 25-year-old Marine expert marksman who served in Iraq and Haiti, is accused of killing Navy Seal sniper Chris Kyle and his friend Chad Littlefield at an Erath county shooting range on Saturday afternoon. Authorities say he fled in Kyle’s truck and was later captured in Lancaster. He is now being held in the Erath County jail.

“I don’t know if he’s being honest with me,” Blevins said. “I’m just really terrified. He says that he killed two guys. They went out to a shooting range.”

While Blevins was on the phone with the operator, the family left their home and began driving to the police department.

As the call continued, Blevins described him as being psychotic and said she did not know whether he was on drugs.

“He’s all crazy,” Blevins said.

Blevins’ husband told the 911 operator that Routh had told them he had two guns in the truck. He said he didn’t know where Routh was headed.

“He was talking kind of babble,” Blevins’ husband said.

He said that he did not make any threats toward them. He also said that Routh had recently been diagnosed with PTSD.

“He’s been acting a little weird from that,” he said. “He just got out of a mental hospital last week.”

The call ended when the family arrived at the Midlothian Police Department.

According to police records released Monday, Routh told his sister that he had “traded his soul for a new truck.”

Flags flew at half staff outside the Kaufman County Courthouse, not far from where Mark Hasse was shot. (Ron Baselice/Staff Photographer)

Funeral services for slain Kaufman County prosecutor Mark Hasse have been set for Saturday in Terrell.

Hasse, 57, was fatally shot near his car Thursday morning in a parking lot routinely used by Kaufman County officials. Local, state and federal authorities are working around the clock to identify his killers.

Funeral services have been set for 2 p.m. Saturday at the Terrell school district’s Performing Arts Center at 400 Poetry Road in Terrell, Texas.

“People are still really in a state of disbelief that this could happen here,” said County Judge Bruce Wood. “That’s the part that’s just really troubling but we’re hoping and praying that law enforcement will find some clues.”

The Kaufman County district attorney’s office re-opened for business Monday, and the United States Honor Flag was taken under escort to Kaufman as a tribute to Hasse. The flag has been used around the nation to honor fallen law enforcement officers and emergency workers.

About 400 people attended a noontime ceremony during which the flag was raised. The flag will be lowered in another ceremony at 4 p.m. Tuesday.

Mark Hasse

Wood said Kaufman County officials have been grateful and appreciative of the outpouring of support from elsewhere in the state and nationally.

Authorities have said that up to two people shot Hasse multiple times Thursday morning before fleeing in a car in what can only be described as a well-planned assault. Hasse’s killers concealed their identities and may have been wearing ski masks and hoodies. They have been described as wearing all black attire and possibly tactical vests.

Authorities have few clues as to the identity of the attackers. Investigators are continuing to sift through Hasse’s old cases to look for a possible motivate for the slayings. Officials also hope that a hefty reward –$80,000 and growing – could lead to a tip that cracks the case.

In the aftermath of Hasse’s slaying, officials have increased security in the downtown Kaufman area, including at the parking lot where Hasse was killed. Wood said officials are beginning to look at what other security measures can reasonably be done over the longer term. One of those will likely be the installation of cameras, he said.

Wood described Hasse’s killing as an “attack on our criminal justice system.”

“That’s one of the very basic fabrics of our free and open society,” he said. “That what makes this murder so devastating and so important that eventually someone is brought to justice for this.”

The Reward

A reward of $80,000 is now being offered for an arrest and conviction in the slaying of Mark Hasse. Anyone with information can call Kaufman County Crime Stoppers at 1-877-847-7522. Donations to the Crime Stoppers reward fund can also be made payable to the Mark Hasse Fund at any area American National Bank of Texas location.

An Irving motorcycle officer died Sunday after being admitted into a Grapevine hospital for low blood pressure on Friday, department officials said.

Officer Corey Lee Cooksey, 39, died shortly after midnight Sunday. His cause of death is pending.

Cooksey joined the force in 1999, and at the time of his death he was working as a motorcycle officer. He also served on the department’s honor guard and was an academy instructor. He is survived by his wife and 9-year-old son.

The viewing will be from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday at Restland Funeral Home at 400 South Freeport Parkway in Coppell. The funeral will be at 11 a.m. Friday, December 28, at Calvary Church located at 4401 North State Hwy. 161 in Irving.

In lieu of flowers, the family has requested that donations be made to the Corey Cooksey Memorial Fund at the Irving City Employees Federal Credit Union. Checks should be made payable to the ICEFCU and deposited in account #11684, subaccount #1. Donations will be given to the Cooksey family.